We describe a prototype 3D optical microscopy system that utilizes parallel computing and high-speed networks to address a major obstacle to successful implementation of 3D dynamic microscopy: the huge computational demand of real-time dynamic 3D acquisition, reconstruction, and display, and the high-bandwidth demand of data transfer for remote processing and display. The system comprises image acquisition hardware and software, high- speed networks between acquisition and processing environments, parallel restoration using wavelet algorithms, and volume rendering and display in a virtual environment.